Mid Valley alumni, athlete fights leukemia, asks for help from the public
Mid Valley High School graduate Eddie Kaufman has always been a team player, whether on the baseball field or the golf course.
The Roanoke College sophomore is now engaged in a different kind of team effort in a battle against T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Kaufman's former classmates, his friends, neighbors and the community are coming together to find a blood stem cell donor for Kaufman.
'Team Eddie K' is working with the National Marrow Donor Program, or NMDP, to find a life-saving match for Kaufman, who is currently at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
The registry has a '9 out of 10' match for Kaufman, but his doctors say a perfect '10 out of 10' match will reduce the chances he will reject the stem cells.
Events in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties will provide a chance for potential donors ages 18-40 to do a swab test to see if they are a potential match for Kaufman and also place their names on the national NMDP registry.
Potential donors can also swab the inside of their cheek at home and mail the test in.
Brian Kaufman, Eddie's father, said the family is beyond grateful to members of the community that have enthusiastically responded when they found out his son needed help.
Kaufman looks back to last fall when his son called from college complaining of swollen lymph nodes.
The family thought the swollen nodes were related to dental work and an oral surgeon put him on antibiotics.
The antibiotics didn't work and when Kaufman made a trip home to Throop, it was apparent his lymph nodes were extremely swollen.
He went to his pediatrician and was referred to the Children Hospital's of Philadelphia for treatment.
Kaufman said his son had been in extremely good shape, worked out regularly and was a rising star on his college baseball team.
College coaches said they hadn't seen any signs Eddie Kaufman was ill.
And, although the family is hoping their efforts will find a perfect match for Eddie Kaufman, Brian Kaufman said Eddie is aware that in working to get people on the registry, he's also helping others in need of a stem cell transplant.
'Eddie has always been part of a team. He's always been part of a group,' Brian Kaufman said during an interview at the Throop Civic Center. 'This is a different kind of a team.'
The center will open its doors Wednesday and Thursday from 5-7 p.m. for a 'Help Eddie Kaufman Fight Leukemia Swab Event.'
Similar events will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at the Lackawanna County Government Center and the Luzerne County UFCO, Jenkins Twp.
Brian Kaufman said donors recover quickly after making a stem cell donation, likening it to a plasma donation.
According to the NMDP registry website, 90% of donors donate through a process called 'peripheral blood cell donation' and are generally able to return to work the day after donating and are fully recovered within a week.
Friends in the battle
Eddie Kaufman may have chosen to move out of state to attend college, but he's remained close with friends from the area.
When those friends found out he was sick, they took to their cellphones and asked in a group chat, 'What can we do to help Eddie?'
Jaden Carroll poses with cutouts of his Mid Valley alumni Eddie Kaufman. Kaufman is battling leukemia. (GERI GIBBONS/STAFF PHOTO)
Jaden Carroll and Emily Deoliveira were among those classmates who stepped up and will be volunteering at the donation events.
'We actually hung out at week before he left for college and everything was great,' Deoliveira said. 'A couple weeks into college, we heard that he was sick.'
After the friend group found out it was leukemia, they sprang into action.
'All of our friends talked about what we could do to help him,' she said. 'Recently we found out we could do the swabbing because he needs a perfect match.'
Deoliveira said the swabbing is a very easy process, pointing out it's much easier then swabbing for COVID.
'We've done it and now we're trying to get other people to do it as well,' she said.
For information about opportunities to donate access the 'Team Eddie K' website at teameddiek.com.
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Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Yahoo
We Got Sick — Was Our College to Blame?
Portions of this article rely on accounts, reporting, and materials that could not be independently corroborated. I turned 32 recently, and spent much of my birthday thinking about Ida Peterson Hardon, a fellow Roanoke College alum who died of leukemia on May 13, 2024. She was 33. I didn't set out to become a cancer activist. Honestly, I just wanted someone to listen to my story. When I was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 2019 at the age of 25, I believed the fight would be clinical, personal, and ultimately behind me once treatment ended. I'd go through chemo, recover, and get back to my life — a life that had begun in earnest on the red-brick campus of Roanoke College, where I studied from 2011 to 2015. But my diagnosis didn't feel like a fluke: I'd seen an Instagram post about another Roanoke girl in treatment. Another friend from my sorority pledge class. Then a group chat lit up with news of Ida Peterson Hardon, one more alum who was sick. I felt a sense of déjà vu: These students were diagnosed far too young with a disease that was supposed to come much later — if ever. Faculty members from the school's English department, who worked in a building called Miller Hall, had reportedly fallen ill. (Later, a May 2025 article published in AirMail would state that at least eight Roanoke professors were diagnosed with cancer — five of whom fought breast cancer.) Alumni were reportedly diagnosed within years of graduation, shattering entire friend groups before the age of 35. For years, those cases were discussed only in whispers. Then a reporter learned that the college had conducted environmental testing on campus buildings in 2023 — after professor Mary Crockett Hill's 2023 stage IV colon cancer diagnosis — but kept the results hidden until the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) got involved. (OSHA reportedly received a complaint by an anonymous faculty member in 2024, about the lack of transparency regarding the testing.) But none of the test results were shared with students or faculty — until whistleblowers and journalists forced the truth into the open. I never intended to become an overnight 'TikTok sensation.' In the fall of 2023, I recorded a video in which I talked about my college — and all the young alums being diagnosed with cancer. I ended up with 1.5M views. Journalist Clara Molot saw my video and reached out; I began working with her in fall 2023. Initially, I finally felt a sense of relief. Someone was willing not just to listen — but to really investigate. She wanted to talk to everyone connected to what felt more and more like a crisis: the disturbing number of cancers linked to Roanoke College. In May 2024, Molot published part one of her investigation, 'Roanoke's Requiem.' I read it with my stomach in knots. Friends, faculty, buildings I knew by heart — all laid bare in black and white. I recognized that specific ache: the gut-punch realization that something you once loved might have hurt you. After the first article ran, I wrote to the college in September 2024, and got more than 220 students to co-sign that letter. It was addressed to Roanoke President Frank Shushok, urging the school to complete the environmental testing it had promised to conduct (particularly since students had already moved in for the academic year in August). We weren't demanding much — just the truth and test results. Instead, we got handpicked summaries and concealed reports. (The results Roanoke did release, Molot reported, were only available behind a password-protected site — accessible only to current students and faculty.) That response — the absence of transparency, and the lack of urgency or even basic concern — appalled me. Because here's what I know now, and what I can never un-know: Too many of us got sick. Too many of us have died. Too many of us can relapse. And those in power are still treating it like a coincidence. But we knew it wasn't. In 2024, the environmental testing company the school had hired to investigate, Engineering Consulting Services (ECS), finally released a portion of its test results. Maybe now we'd finally get answers. Instead, Molot obtained the details of ECS's testing, which revealed that it had skipped the most basic and essential step: indoor air testing for volatile organic compounds. (The report isn't available publicly, but was reviewed for Molot's piece.) That's like seeing smoke and deciding not to check for fire. What ECS did test — sub-slab soil gas — showed industrial levels of carbon tetrachloride beneath the school's Bartlett Hall; perchloroethylene in a dormitory called Chalmers; and chloroform across multiple dorms, fraternity houses, and Miller Hall itself. 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We will keep telling the truth. Because truth is the only thing that might protect the next generation of students walking into those buildings. We're not here to scare or shame Roanoke — we're trying to protect its residents. This is about the safety of current students, faculty, staff, and those yet to come. It's for alumni who haven't seen a doctor in years and deserve to know if they need to. What's baffling is that the administration seems unwilling to investigate further, even when their own health and safety could be at stake. But first, we're asking Roanoke officials to start looking at the realities the members of their community, and the city of Salem, are facing. That's where the answers are. Before publishing this piece, KCM contacted Roanoke for comment; the college replied with this statement: 'Cancer is a horrible disease that no person should have to bear, and it is especially heartbreaking to us that some of our alumni and employees have been faced with a cancer diagnosis. Cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the U.S., and it has been well documented in the media and scientific journals that diagnoses among younger Americans are on the rise. When it comes to cancer, we fully understand the desire for answers; however, there is no evidence that the answer lies at Roanoke. We believe students who attend our institution are no more likely to be diagnosed with cancer than students who attend other colleges. When Roanoke was made aware of these concerns in 2024, we reacted swiftly and with gravity, immediately embarking on a year-long battery of independent environmental tests. We took this step despite the Virginia Department of Health's statement that there is no evidence of a cancer cluster at Roanoke College. During the testing process, we published seven updates on the college website to keep the community informed. Any concerns identified through the testing were minor and were quickly remediated, and the overall findings revealed no ongoing, systemic concerns at Roanoke College. The article referenced in this op-ed contains inaccuracies and serious omissions. However, we are confident in both the safety of our campus and the integrity of our process, and we remain committed to ensuring that Roanoke College is a safe place to live, work and learn.' Chloe Svolos Baldwin is a 32-year-old cancer survivor dedicated to improving the lives of fellow survivors through her work in healthcare. She lives in Boston with her husband, Luke, and loves cooking, reading, and taking long walks with Taylor Swift in her ears. The post We Got Sick — Was Our College to Blame? appeared first on Katie Couric Media.
New York Times
16-05-2025
- New York Times
Raiders rookie OT Charles Grant more than a small-school prospect: ‘He's truly special'
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And when Grant was still on the board at pick No. 99 in the third round, the Raiders didn't hesitate. 'A good athlete and a good person,' Spytek said last month. 'He can really move his feet and run into space. (Offensive coordinator) Chip (Kelly) is super fired up about getting him in there. He fits the scheme great.' Grant is aware of the negative stigma often attached to prospects from small schools like William & Mary, an FCS program. There's typically some doubt they'll be able to cut it against NFL-level talent. While Grant acknowledges it'll be a steep uptick in competition, he believes he can silence the skeptics. 'I have a chip on my shoulder,' Grant said. 'I know what I can do. I've just got to prove it to everybody.' day one @CharlesGrant51#TribeInTheNFL | #RaiderNation 📸 @Raiders — William & Mary Tribe Football (@WMTribeFootball) May 10, 2025 Grant didn't play sports until he picked up wrestling in seventh grade, and he didn't play football until he was a junior at Churchland High in Portsmouth, Va. The coaching staff put him at left tackle and, while he was raw, he showed some early flashes that he attributed to his wrestling background. '(It was) the mental fortitude. It takes a lot to go out on the mat and just keep doing it even when you're dog tired,' Grant said. '(You have to) just keep fighting and finishing the match. … I used to wrestle for like four hours a day. I know I can persevere through anything I've been going through. … And I'd also say my ability to move off the ball, be quick, be nimble and cut the backside off, just things like that. I knew how to position my body.' Advertisement Nonetheless, Grant remained a no-star recruit. He weighed just 240 pounds and hadn't participated in many camps since he continued to wrestle. He landed a Division II offer from Virginia-Wise following his junior season, and his only Division I offer came from William & Mary. Grant committed to William & Mary at the start of his senior year. He received more offers after earning first-team all-region honors that season but stuck with his pledge since William & Mary is less than an hour from his hometown and the Tribe staff showed faith in him early. 'He was an offensive lineman that had some growth and development still left to do,' London said, 'but he had measurables, he was athletic and he had a great attitude.' When Grant enrolled in 2020, his first order of business was bulking up. Even at the FCS level, 240 pounds wouldn't cut it at offensive tackle. He redshirted as a freshman and spent that time improving his physique, refining his technique and working on the team's zone-based blocking scheme. Grant progressed enough to start five games the next season, but the real turning point came in 2022. William & Mary was down to just five scholarship offensive linemen, and then one got hurt in fall camp. That put more pressure on Grant to step up. Grant started every game that season, and then did the same in 2023 on his way to being named a first-team FCS All-American. 'The confidence level (went up),' Acitelli said. 'Once he knew, 'Hey, I can be good at this and I can be dominant,' it really started to take off.' Thank you!! — Charles Grant (@CharlesGrant51) April 29, 2025 Following that breakout 2023 season, Grant had several opportunities to leave William & Mary for a bigger program. FBS teams attempted to poach him with lucrative NIL offers. 'There were some teams that offered him a lot of money to forgo his last year here and go to their place,' London said. Grant knew William & Mary wouldn't be able to match those deals, but he turned them down anyway. The biggest reason Grant stuck with the Tribe was the connection he had with his teammates over four years. They voted to name him a team captain, and he went on to have his best collegiate season as he was again named a first-team FCS All-American. Advertisement 'William & Mary had given him an opportunity, and he wanted to make sure he finished it with those guys,' Acitelli said. 'He was dominant. I mean, he was throwing guys around and knocking guys down on an almost play-by-play basis. He was cutting guys off. We never had to worry about, 'Yeah, if we run the ball to the right, is he going to be able to cut off the 4i or the three technique?' That wasn't an issue. And then we knew when we ran to this side, there was going to be movement on the front side. It was a pretty awesome deal. … 'I moved from offensive line (coach) to offensive coordinator last year. I still coached the offensive line, but then on game day, I was trying to do two different things. … It forced (Grant) to become even more of a leader on game day and be more vocal.' .@WMTribeFootball @CharlesGrant51 what a fascinating prospect. Great length; Great feet; lots of action. Good coaching; more strength and we have a starting tackle in the NFL #nfldraft #BaldysBreakdowns — Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) April 20, 2025 London compared Grant to a smaller version of former NFL offensive tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson, who was drafted fourth overall in 2006 and went on to become a three-time Pro Bowl selection. That's a lofty expectation, and Grant has plenty to work on before he gets there. Most notably, Grant remains light for a left tackle. He needs to continue getting stronger and adding mass. Without that, he won't be able to anchor and handle the more powerful rushers in the NFL. 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That and his unique combination of traits will give him a shot to compete for a role early on. 'I have great athletic ability,' Grant said, 'but if I can put the perfect technique to that, I know I'd become a player that's unstoppable.'
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Yahoo
Yale University holds annual bone marrow honor registration drive
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — Yale University held its 17th annual 'Mandi Schwartz Marrow Donor Registration Drive' Tuesday, in an effort to save lives and honor a former hockey player who lost her battle with cancer. The anniversary is especially meaningful, as 17 was Mandi Schwartz's jersey number. Branford boy with leukemia finds bone marrow match with help from Dan and Andrea Hurley 'To find out that she needed a matching donor, to have the transplant that could save her life, that just inspired everybody on the campus to try to go out, add to the registry, and hopefully find a matching donor for her,' Yale's assistant director of strategic communications, Sam Rubin, said. Despite their best efforts to find her a match, the 23-year-old lost her battle with acute myeloid leukemia in 2011. However, her legacy lives on through the marrow drives, which have now spread to over 300 schools across the country as part of the NMDP 'Get in the Game'' campaign. 'We heard about Mandi's story and about how hard it is to find a match and we all kind of step up and play our part and try to help everyone who needs it,' Yale hockey player Owen Forester said. Since Yale started doing the drives in 2009, they've added about 10,000 potential donors and over 100 matches for patients. Connecticut Families: Brookfield dad gets bone marrow transplant from professional lacrosse player The registration process takes just a few minutes and involves a cheek swab. Anyone between 18 and 40 can sign up. NMDP said for matches, the procedure is not painful or overly invasive. 'Ninety percent of the donations at this point are what's called a peripheral blood stem cell donation,' which is very similar to a plasma donation that many people are familiar with, according to member recruitment coordinator Jessica Pacheco. 'The 10 percent is that bone marrow donation, which is needed for our pediatric patients, aggressive cancers. But even that's outpatient now, it's not nearly as invasive as it used to be,' Pacheco said. Yale officials said their goal this year is to get over 600 people to sign up. 'We're going to shoot through that, get as many people as we can and save some lives,' Yale men's soccer player Conrad Lee said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
